


Tortuga Sinks

by BarPurple



Series: Once Upon the Seas [2]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV), Original Work
Genre: Death, End of what was, F/M, change
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-26
Updated: 2016-02-26
Packaged: 2018-05-23 09:06:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6111673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BarPurple/pseuds/BarPurple





	Tortuga Sinks

Suze had seen the signs for a long while now. The steady drop in the number of ships that made port here; the crumbling rock as the sea took back parts of the island, the encroaching sand invading even her tavern. The Brethren Court hadn’t been a full Nine in decades, there just weren’t enough great pirates left in the world. She’d smiled when she’d heard of a one handed pirate now roving the seas, but sadness had clouded her features when she found he’d not replaced his loss with a curve of metal, but a mechanical replica hand that ran on no magic she understood.

Gods, how she missed Poppet, it had been more days than she cared to count since Henry Mills had arrived at The Harbour Inn to tell her that the happily ever after of Killian Jones and Emma Swan had come to the final end. Their shared heart had quit this life and taken them into the undiscovered country together; and that was as it should be. It had been a bittersweet day; she’d mourned departed friends but celebrated new acquaintances in the form of Henry’s wife and twin daughters. Violet was a warm woman with a heart of solid oak, while the girls, Mary Emma and Regina Margaret, were full of life and had a craving for adventure that reminded her so much of the young Master Mills she’d first met in Storybrooke. She’d heard tell of Henry’s children and his children’s children over the years, but it was the occasions when she’d spied a pair of sea blue eyes and a wicked grin, or a thoughtful frown and green eyes that had brought her joy. Those were the times that she’d known the legacy of hard fought for true love was still alive in the world.

Suze only accepted that the end of her tale was in sight when she found her hives empty. The only thing left of her beloved bees were silent combs and a stone jar of honey, just enough to brew a final batch of mead. She spent a long while staring out at the horizon with that final gift cradled in her hands.

The last day of Tortuga began much as the first had; her coming to awareness of being alone on the island, but knowing that there was someone coming. The mead had finished settling and was ready to be drunk. There would only be two who knew the taste of the final brew.

Suze stood on the docks as the flash of green coloured the sky that final dawn. The bleached white ship drifted into port and tears pricked her black eyes as her husband of so many years, and yet of so few days stepped ashore.

Davy’s hair was as heavy as hers with the shells that marked each day they shared together. The only reason either of them could bear the weight of the days separated by decades was the magic that sustained them both; the magic that was gasping its last today.

“You are weeping, Wife. Are you not pleased to see your Husband?”

Suze let her tears fall.

“I am always pleased to see my Husband, but I think I will not see him again after this day and that makes me weep.”

Tears began falling from the silver eyes of the Dead Man.

“We have had fair sailing for more years than we could have hoped, Wife.”

“Davy.”

“Suze.”

The ground beneath the trembled as they embraced; Tortuga was in its death throws, but that death would be slow, marked with the tender passion that comes from familiarity and an impossible, yet enduring True Love.

The last of the mead had been drunk as Black Eyed Suzanne drew in a deep breath.

“Tis time to take back what is yours Husband.”

Davy Jones licked the last sweet honey taste from his cold lips.

“And for me to return that which I have had the honour to protect these many days, Wife.”

The island shook under them as they both tried to find reasons to delay the inevitable.

“Come now Husband, tis cruel to keep your Wife waiting.”

Davy Jones shook his head making the shells in his hair rattle softly. There were no words left to them, no time that they could take and enjoy. He placed his cold, long fingered hand on Suze’s chest and felt the slowing beat of his heart beneath her breast. Suze swallowed hard and mirrored his gesture, her fingers caressing his chest, feeling the beat of her own misbegotten heart under his thin ribs. By unspoken and mutual consent they drove their hands into each other’s chests and withdrew their own hearts. Suze stepped back as Davy tried to linger. Her voice broke as she insisted;

“Go. Go now.”

Davy Jones held his own heart loosely in his hand, it wasn’t as precious to him as the one he’d just given up; he turned on his heel and made it too the gangplank of The Flying Dutchman before he paused, he did not look back, but whispered;

“I have and will always love you, Wife.”

“And I you, forever and always, Husband.”

The Dead Man and his ship left port, but there was no flash of green. The Dutchman was sucked into the abyss from whence it came and the once risen isle of Tortuga sank back into the depths in its wake.

 

The Author held the pen above the page, ink and tears dripping onto the paper as they hesitated over the final two words. They drew in a shuddering breath and inscribed at the bottom of the very last page the words:

The End.

And thus the last volume of Once Upon the Seas came to a close.

It was by Fate’s strange and twisting machinations that the Author who inscribed those last words was also the one who wrote the first words of a new story book. 

Once upon the distant stars a safe port for pirates and rebels was summoned into existence by the hand and the will of the Dead Captain; he who ferried souls lost in space to the afterlife. This rock adrift in dark space took the title of its infamous earthbound namesake and was known to all as Tortuga, and upon this asteroid of vice and sin, no tavern was as infamous as that of Star Eyed Suzanne, the tavern called The Harbour Inn.


End file.
